Hitting our Neon Nightmare series is The Wild Goose Lake, a neo noir from Diao Yinan.
When small-time mob leader Zhou Zenong accidentally kills a cop, a dead-or-alive bounty is placed on his head. This forces him to make a run for it from both the police and dangerous gangsters out for the reward. At the same time, Zhou finds himself drawn to a woman whose origins are as mysterious as her intentions.
A smash hit in its native China, The Wild Goose Lake was a competitor for the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
“It’s an exercise in pure cinema, an abstract painting of a crime story.” – Peter Howell, Toronto Star
“In a movie where just about every scene contains some inventive technique or choice, I was most taken with the way Diao boldly abstracts some of his action…” – A.A. Dowd, The A.V. Club
“‘The Wild Goose Lake’ is unapologetically down-and-dirty B-movie filmmaking, but with its stealth social commentary and matter-of-fact bleakness, you would never call it escapist entertainment.” – Justin Chang, The Los Angles Times